The GER Class N31 was a class of eighty-two

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...

steam locomotives designed by James Holden for the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

. Eighteen passed to the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

(LNER) at the

1923 grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

and received the LNER classification J14.

History

These goods locomotives had cylinders, driving wheels, and a boiler. Eighty-one were built at

Stratford Works Stratford Works was the locomotive-building works of the Great Eastern Railway situated at Stratford, London, England. The original site of the works was located in the 'V' between the Great Eastern Main Line and the Stratford to Lea Bridge rou ...

between 1893 and 1898.

Table of orders and numbers

Class 127

In addition, when the Class 127 locomotive was rebuilt from compound to simple in 1895, it was then included into Class N31.

Performance

They were not particularly successful locomotives. Although nicknamed ''Swifts'', they were sluggish locomotives, due to the placement of the valve chests underneath the cylinders.

Withdrawals

Withdrawals started in 1908, and by the end of 1922, only eighteen were left in service. The LNER allocated numbers 7000 higher than the locomotives' GER numbers, but withdrawals continued, and by 1925 the class was extinct.

References

External links

N31 Class 0-6-0 1891-1898
— Great Eastern Railway Society
The Class J14 (GER Class N31) 0-6-0 Locomotives
— LNER Encyclopedia {{LNER Locomotives N31 0-6-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1893 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Freight locomotives Scrapped locomotives